COVENTRY CITY COUNCIL has been accused of underspending on single homeless people, compared with other authorities.

Mike Fowler, chief executive of Coventry Cyrenians - the charity which sees 2,500 single homeless people a year - said the city council was given £16million last year as part of a government initiative called Supporting People.

But he believes there is a serious imbalance in the way the cash is divided up.

He said while the council is spending 6.3 per cent of its budget on homeless families, next year it is cutting emergency accommodation for rough sleepers by £160,000.

Mr Fowler said: "Coventry spends just 9 per cent on the single homeless, which is lower than any local authority in the West

Midlands - and well below the national average.

"At the same time, we are spending double the national average on families for whom the local authority has a statutory duty to provide accommodation.

"There are far more single homeless than families and what I think we are beginning to see is money going to areas where the council already has responsibilities. And that is to the detriment of people who have been socially excluded and are more likely to have to sleep on the streets."

Stephen Rudge, head of the city council's housing and policy services, said: "We are surprised at what Mr Fowler says because we do a considerable amount of work to see how Coventry spending compares with that of similar councils.

"Our Supporting People spend

ing on homelessness compares well with spending by other West Midlands councils with a similar size budget, at around 9 per cent. In addition, those councils recording high percentage spending on single home-lessness often have small total budgets. The actual money spent is comparable to Coventry."

He added that, since last March, the council had paid more than £111,000 to Coventry Cyrenians to run an emergency accommodation scheme.

"That is an important part of the council's total spending on homelessness, as, too, is the new provision for single homeless people, also operated by Coventry Cyrenians, at a cost of £250,000 per year."

He said if the council spent more of the Supporting People budget on single homelessness, it would have to spend less on other vulnerable groups, such as older people, or people with physical or mental disabilities. ..SUPL: